


One Last Hurrah

by amy1om



Category: House M.D.
Genre: Angst, Friendship, Gen, Mentions of Character Death, References to Suicide
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-06-21
Updated: 2013-06-21
Packaged: 2017-12-15 17:22:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,368
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/852064
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/amy1om/pseuds/amy1om
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In the weeks following Kutner's suicide, Taub receives one last message from him...</p>
            </blockquote>





	One Last Hurrah

**Author's Note:**

> A/N: This was written for the Kutner Fest ficathon on the kutner_love LJ community for prompt #25 “What happens to Kutner's faux House Second Opinion web site?”

One morning three weeks after Kutner's suicide, Taub had been the first to arrive at work so he decided to catch up on his email. He had ignored the backlog of messages for so long that over one thousand awaited him. He was in the process of deleting all the spam when the name on one message made Taub stop cold.

 

From: L. Kutner 

To: Chris Taub 

Subject: (no subject)

 

Taub stared at it for a full minute and almost dismissed it as some insensitive jerk's (House) sick idea of a joke. Angry he almost deleted it before he noticed it had a video attachment, and after only a moment's hesitation he opened it. He found Kutner's smiling, frozen face waiting for him from an embedded video square.

 

The realization this email wasn't a joke, and had really been sent to him by Kutner ripped off the scab that had just started to form over the wound his suicide was, bringing on a new round of anger and hurt.

 

Taub clicked out of the email.

 

The email would've been deleted right then if Foreman and Thirteen hadn't walked in at that moment. The only reason it didn't get deleted later that day was because Cuddy brought them a new case and Taub forgot about it for the next two days. The email got a further reprieve because they had solved the case in the middle of the night and the next day was Saturday.

 

The next thought he gave the email was Monday morning when, once again, he was the first one to come into work. But this time when he looked at it he didn't feel the anger he had felt before. Instead, when he saw Kutner's face he found himself missing the idiot who had been his friend. He wished for the thousandth time Kutner had talked to him about his problems before he had made the decision to blow his own brains out. This time when he looked at Kutner's frozen face all he felt was a sadness that his friend was gone forever.

 

Taub wrestled aside the angry hesitation to let his curiosity about what Kutner would have to say to him win and he clicked on the triangle play button.

 

Five minutes after the video finished playing, Foreman arrived to work with Thirteen following him in about three minutes later. Their pretence that they were not a couple anymore for House's benefit had at first been somewhat amusing since it meant they'd pull one over their boss who claimed he was allowing knowing and all seeing. It hadn't taken either him or Kutner long to figure out they were still seeing each other, and because it meant a point scored for the fellows over House they'd kept their colleagues' relationship to themselves.

 

Taub let them both have a few minutes to themselves and get their morning routines started before he asked, “Did either of you get an email from Kutner?” Foreman looked up from the file he was reading and Taub noticed Thirteen wiping her mouth like she hadn't completely succeeded in stopping herself from spitting out her coffee.

 

“W-what did you just say?” she asked.

 

The look on Foreman's face told Taub he had heard and understood the question. “He asked if either of us got an email from Kutner?”

 

“As in a new email?” Thirteen asked.

 

“Yeah as in a new email.” Both of them shook their heads while giving him a look that said they were questioning his sanity. Taub got out his laptop and brought up his email account, and pointed out the email from Kutner to them. “See the date on it?”

 

Foreman took one look at the date on the email and rolled his eyes, “You do know that House is the one who really sent that and that he's only trying to screw around with your mind right?”

 

Taub shot him a look that said he had just stated the obvious, “House didn't send it. I know he didn't send it because Kutner put a video taped message in the email.” He opened the email and turned the computer around again so they could see the screen. “So unless House has had plastic surgery, changed the color of his eyes, and learned how to make his voice sound exactly like Kutner's then I'd say that this actually is Kutner.”

 

“Okay, so Kutner did send the email,” Thirteen said, “How can he send you a message when he's been dead for almost a month?”

 

Taub instructed, “Scroll down to the bottom of the email.”

 

Foreman did as he said, and then read out loud the information found there, “Afterwards.com connecting you with your family and friends from the beyond.”

 

“I looked the website up and apparently it's a service where you can pre-arrange to have messages sent to your family and friends after you've died.”

 

“Kutner arranged for a message to be sent to you after he died,” Foreman stated.

 

“Yeah.”

 

“So what did the message say?” Thirteen asked, scrolling the screen back up to the embedded video square.

 

Taub moved the laptop out of her reach, and closed the lid before putting it away. “He asked me to do a few favors for him. There's one I wanted to ask you both for your help. It's -”

 

House walked in at that moment.“Good morning, boys and girl.” He threw down a file onto the conference table. “Mommy has new case for us.” He went over to the whiteboard, hooked his cane on the back, and began writing out the symptoms their new patient had presented with.

 

While House's back was turned to them Taub took the opportunity to mouth at Foreman 'we'll talk about this later.' The other fellows nodded before giving House their full attention.

 

0oo

Their patient was diagnosed and on the road to recovery by mid afternoon. Foreman went down to the clinic to get his hours there out of the way leaving Taub and Thirteen to walk back to Diagnostics together. When they entered the office and saw that House wasn't there Taub decided to seize the opportunity to tell Thirteen what he'd wanted to say earlier.

 

“Okay so what were you about to say this morning when House walked in?” Thirteen prompted once they knew they were alone.

 

“First did you know Kutner was running a second opinion website in House's name?” Taub asked.

 

Thirteen smiled, “She put the lime in the coconut, she drank them both up.”

 

Taub smirked, “Let me guess you heard about it from Cameron or Chase or perhaps both?”

 

“It was Foreman who told me about it actually and he heard it from Chase.”

 

Taub smirked, “All right anyway in the video Kutner said a week after I got the email I would be contacted by a lawyer who among other things would give me the information relating to the online clinic.”

 

“Okay, so what does this have to do with me or Foreman?”

 

“I want to keep the site going and since real free time is hard to come by, I want to ask you both for your help in keeping the site up and running,” Taub explained.

 

“Why? Why do you want to keep the site going?” she asked.

 

Taub shrugged, “I don't know. I just do.”

 

“Let me talk to Foreman about it but no matter what he says you can count on my help at least.”

 

“Thank you I should be hearing from the lawyer on Friday, so I'll let you know something on Monday.”

 

“Sounds like a plan,” she said as he headed towards the door. “See you Monday.”

 

0oo

Taub's meeting with the lawyer was very short and sweet. It was just as well because the lawyer, Alan Nussenbaum, was around Taub's age and seemed to be as dry as the Atacama Desert. He looked up at Taub with humorless eyes with glasses perched on the tip of his nose, and he spoke, in a beyond lifeless monotone voice. Nussenbaum had handed Taub a sealed manila envelope, explained its contents, and then promptly left when he was told Taub had no questions to ask him regarding it.

 

I have no questions for you other than why did Kutner pick you for this, Taub thought as Nussenbaum walked back to the elevators. Seeing House emerge from the neighboring Nussenbuam prevented Taub from looking at the envelope's contents at that moment, and a new patient prevented him from looking at it until Saturday. The envelope's contents were not looked at until he had settled into bed on Sunday night while Rachel watched some television.

 

When Taub walked into the doctors' lounge on Monday morning he found Cameron and Chase seated with the only two people he had expected to show up. He got a cup of coffee before joining the group and everyone fell silent as he sat down. He looked first at the newlyweds, saying, “I thought you'd left already for your honeymoon.”

 

“Since we want to go to Australia we decided to push it back towards the end of the year,” Cameron said.

 

“Winter will begin soon there,” Chase explained.

 

“Now what are you doing here, in this meeting? I had expected only Foreman and Thirteen since neither of you worked with Kutner as closely as the three of us did.”

 

Foreman spoke up,“I mentioned it to them.”

 

“Why?”

 

Chase jumped in before Foreman could give an answer, “ She put the lime in the coconut, she drank them both up.” He paused and smiled at him. “It's true neither of us knew or worked as closely with Kutner as the three of you did.”

 

“But that doesn't mean we didn't like what we knew about him,” Cameron finished.

 

“So why don't you tell us how you want our help in keeping the site going,” Foreman suggested.

 

With a nod Taub began to explain his idea.

 

0oo

Epilogue:

 

Sometime later. . .

 

With a weary sigh Foreman pushed open the door to the Diagnostics conference room and pinched the bridge of his nose as he stepped inside. He had spent most of his day in the Neurology department consulting on a case before finishing out the day with a few hours in the clinic. Thirteen was the only person still there, and she looked up as he came in , a ghost of a smile lighting up her face.

 

“My place or yours?” she asked, not yet noting the pain on his face.

 

Foreman shook his head, “Neither tonight. I'm tired and I've got a headache coming on. I need to go home, rest, and try to keep this from becoming a migraine.”

 

“Okay, I could use the rest too actually,” Thirteen said as she finished gathering up her things. “Do you have something to take for a migraine or do you need me to write you a script?”

 

“I've got nothing stronger than Excedrin at home so yeah I'd appreciate the script.” He watched her while she pulled out her pad and scribbled out the proper information. “What were you smiling about when I came in just now?”

 

She handed him the slip of paper. “Oh nothing other than the fact I am pretty sure I just caught House actually answering a few questions on the site.”

 

Foreman gave her a skeptical look, “You mean the same misanthropic jerk who tries every trick in the book to shirk his clinic hours because he thinks the patients are idiots who are diagnostically boring because they have run of the mill diseases is bothering to answer the questions of the same boring idiots online? That House?”

 

“Yeah I mean House, that House.”

 

“I don't believe you.”

 

“Okay fine but if you log on you'll see there's at least fifteen less questions waiting there for one of us than there were earlier in the day,” Thirteen replied.

 

With the imminent migraine temporarily forgotten Foreman walked over to the computer on House's desk and logged into the site. She was right, there were fifteen less questions awaiting attention. He looked at her. “I still don't believe it. House doesn't do things unless he can benefit from it in someway.”

 

Thirteen shrugged, “ Maybe he was bored.”

 

“More like he was trying to look busy in case Cuddy was trying to find him.”

 

“Well, whatever the reason, he did it. That's fifteen less that we have to worry about now.”

 

“Yeah, I suppose so, but in any case I'm tired of thinking about House. So I'm going to go get this script filled and head home.”

 

Thirteen grabbed her bag. “I'll walk out with you.”

 

They left together, neither speaking again until they were in the elevator and Foreman broke the silence, “Maybe we should talk to the others about changing the password.”

 

Thirteen looked at him puzzled. “Why? House didn't do anything other than help by answering some of the questions. Besides he'll only hack into the account again since that's likely how he got in it today, so why bother to change the password?”

 

“You're probably right about that but I think we still need to tell the other House.”

 

“Yeah I guess so,” Thirteen said as the doors opened, “I'll talk to Taub about it tomorrow.”

 

“I'll try to catch Cameron and she can tell Chase.”

 

“Sounds like a plan. Night.”

 

“Goodnight.”

 

0oo

During the first meeting when everyone had agreed to help Taub keep the site going, since any verbal agreements Kutner had made about paying part of the money out to different people were void, it was decided that all the money the site made would be donated to a suicide prevention organization. In the second meeting which was indeed called by Taub when he learned about House, they all decided that they wouldn't change the password, and neither would they say anything to him. They all decided if or when he decided he wanted to help anonymously, they'd allow it - as long as no mischief was caused.

 

The agreement worked because some months , when no mischief had been caused House became an unofficial member of their group the answering questions of online idiots in (what he thought) to be quiet anonymity.

**Author's Note:**

> End Notes:  
> \-- There are two email addresses in this story and while the server I used in Kutner's email address is real, the rest of his email addy is not.  
> \-- The “Afterwards.com” service is based off a actual real services I've stumbled across on the internet.  
> \-- Finally this was written during a time when House was one of my favorite newly discovered shows and I hope I didn't butcher the characters up too badly!


End file.
